Sean Russell
It is with great pleasure that we announce the addition of the web site for
Sean Russell to the
SF Site. Here you'll find information on his recently released title, The One Kingdom, as well as personal
observations on writing this book and his others.
You can find how his interest in spelunking influenced the
setting he employs in his duology Moontide and Magic Rise(comprised
of Beneath the Vaulted Hills and The Compass of the Soul)
and how he combined his interest in Charles Darwin and a passionate
love of sailing in his two-book seriesMoontide and Magic Rise
(made up of World Without End and Sea Without a Shore).
Or perhaps you are interested in the Tale of Genji, the old
Samurai epics, and T'ang dynasty poetry; then you can read about
their influence in his earliest books, The Initiate Brother and
Gatherer of Clouds.

Declare by Tim Powersreviewed by Nick Gevers
All the qualities that made his earlier eldritch
swashbucklers so impressive are here in full measure: an intense and
intimate sense of period or realization of milieu; taut plotting, with human
development and destiny as consequential as the ingenuities of concept for
which the author is so famous; and, looming above all, an awareness of history
itself as a merciless turning of supernatural wheels, as a play of shadows cast
by huge, heinous otherworldly conspiracies. And this time the conspiracy is
that of the rebel angels, and the shadow cast is the Cold War.

Winter by John Marsdenreviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Winter, a 16-year-old orphan with attitude to spare, is troubled with a mystery of her own childhood.
Returning to her biological parents' homestead in the outback, she is unhappy to find that
little has been done to keep the place up in the 12 years of her absence. She gradually discovers more about her
father's accidental death, and something of her mother's death several months later, but people are being very
closed-mouth about the whole thing.

Other Voices, Other Doors by Patrick O'Learyreviewed by Rich Horton
The author seems to be a novelist primarily, but while readers wait for his
next novel, we are offered this fine collection, which brings together 8
short stories (5 of them new), several essays, and a number of poems, most
of the latter having been published in "little" magazines -- all worth
reading as they buzz with neat images and nice wordplay. A few are even
better than that.

Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterlingreviewed by David Soyka
Leggy Starlitz is a cynical, middle-aged, amoral promoter whose latest brainstorm
is G-7 -- an all-girl band of interchangeable and easily replaceable personalities known to their adoring fans only by
their country of origin, e.g. "The American One" or "The French One." The joke here is that G-7 is the term used to refer
to the 7 governments that comprise the world's economic powers. The less charitable would describe them as capitalist
countries looking to exploit less developed nations.

SF Site's Readers' Choice: Best Read of 2000compiled by Neil Walsh
For the past 6 weeks or so, we've been soliciting your votes on what you thought were the best books of the year 2000. The
result is this, the third annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best SF & Fantasy of the Year Top 10 List. And once again, SF
Site readers know what they like. The number one choice was the clear winner very early on, and the votes just kept
pouring in. Thanks to everyone who voted!

Analog, March 2001reviewed by Marc Goldstein
Highlights of the issue include "Creative Destruction," an absorbing
pot-boiler by Edward M. Lerner; David Phalen's "One for the Road," a
conversation between a barfly and God on the nature of time and fate; J.
Brian Clarke's "Wet," in which there is a covert invasion by aliens; and
Brian Stableford's "The Milk of Human Kindness," which follows a parental
argument over whether to feed their infant a new genetically modified milk product.

Shapestone by James Bibbyreviewed by Lisa Brunetta
Marauding orcs, a novice magician, an attractive damsel in distress, the
Guild of Assassins, incompetent officers of the law nipping off for a pint
during working hours, and a rollicking, hilarious adventure set in a
sprawling metropolis with numerous pubs and back alleys. Does this sound
familiar to you? It will if you're a fan of Terry Pratchett's
Discworld novels -- but in that case you should enjoy this
book, too.

LC-39 #3reviewed by Steven H Silver
This issue feature stories by Mark Rich, A.R. Morlan, Laurent McAllister,
Mark Siegel and Alan De Niro, whose "Crossing the View of Delft" is an
existentialist story in which we are given several basic assumptions about 2
protagonists and then the author proceeds to demolish most of those
assumptions, leaving us with a story completely different from the one
originally presented.

Wayne MacLaurin's 2000 Fat Fantasy Awardscompiled by Wayne MacLaurin
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the most glamorous night in Fantasy.
That night when authors, publishers and readers gather together under the crisp
spring moon to witness the presentation of the most sought after accolade, the
renown Fat Fantasy Award; an award the recognizes all that is great about our
beloved genre.

The Graveyard Game by Kage Bakerreviewed by Victoria Strauss
The story opens as Literature Specialist Owen Lewis witnesses a time anomaly in which Mendoza,
heroine of earlier volumes, moves briefly
forward in time, from 1862 to 1996. This is something that's not
supposed to happen: one of the disadvantages of time travel is
that you can only go backward. But Mendoza is a generator of Crome
radiation, an indicator of paranormal abilities no cyborg is
supposed to possess, so there's no telling what she might be able to do.

Babylon 5.1TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick has watched the first 2 episodes of The Lone Gunmen and has a warning to impart.
He's also been DVD shopping. New discs in his player are episodes of The Prisoner and
The Complete X-Files. One fared better than the other.

Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2001reviewed by Nick Gevers
Highlights of this issue include Bruce Sterling's "User-Centric" and Eleanor Arnason's "Lifeline," another
in her Lydia Duluth cycle, "Ice and Mirrors " by Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven and
"The Gods Abandon Alcibiades," an intriguing sortie into the classical past, by Joel Richards.

Heat, Vol. 0reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This is a collection of short tales, in a number of genres, which have graphic sexual relations between
married heterosexual couples as a common thread, along with a smidgen of romance. The sex, while not always
well-integrated into the story, is not flagrantly gratuitous. As for whether it is hard- or soft-core, erotic or pornographic,
that all really depends on your point of view.

Forthcoming Bookscompiled by Neil Walsh
Here's a sampling of some of the F&SF books that are headed our way in the coming months...

The Forever War by Joe Haldemanreviewed by Lisa DuMond
Private William Mandella is a man about to embark on a journey that will traverse space and time, war and uneasy
peace. By the close of the book, the reluctant soldier will have travelled over twelve centuries. That can be traumatic
enough, but it is the changes in society, mores, and norms that will be the most difficult barriers facing him. No work
before or since this novel has so successfully portrayed the emotional toll of what is, essentially, time-travel.

The Empire of Isher by A.E. Van Vogtreviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
The National Rifle Association should give out a copy of this book with every new
membership. Seriously. They're fools if they don't. Jayme has never come across anything that more closely
resembles a NRA-envisioned utopia than this. Before you roll your eyes and scoff at the absurdity of it,
consider the backdrop of the Isher universe. Even the Weapon Shops' credo could be adopted by the gun lobby today
without much fuss: The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.

The Wanderer by Fritz Leiberreviewed by Marc Goldstein
It kicks off when an artificial planet, quickly nicknamed the Wanderer, materializes from hyperspace within
earth's orbit. The Wanderer's gravitational field captures the moon and shatters it into something like one of
Saturn's rings. On earth, the Wanderer's gravity well triggers massive earthquakes, tsunamis, and tidal phenomena. The
multi-threaded plot follows the exploits of a large ensemble cast as they struggle to survive the global disaster.